I wish I took pictures, but I had not done so.
I felt it might be a good idea to at least provide some info about what I did here so that others who haven't already thought about this might have some insight.
I have a Razer Blackwidow Ultimate Stealth (first year model, introduced in 2011, purchased in 2012). This has the Cherry MX Brown switches, with blue backlighting.
I decided I needed to do some maintenance after discovering a few keys were getting a little sticky. Months ago, I had spilled a mixed drink (w/ diet coke) on part of the board. I disconnected, and put it upside down for a few days. After general wiping, it functioned perfectly, without any trace of stickiness or other issues.
With that in mind, I looked up how to proceed, and discovered DeOxit D5 seemed to be a suggested cleaner/lube. I didn't want to go the full alcohol route because I didn't really want to strip what lube was already in the switches, and I figured the cleaning action of the DeOxit would be enough to work out any crud gumming up the works. While doing this, it actually seemed like the keys may have worked out their issue (after spamming and just checking once caps were removed), so I wonder if the switches were fine in the first place. We'll see if they get worse in the future, as I only used the contact cleaner on a portion of the keys, so I will have a comparison to note any change.
Since I would be opening up at least a few keys, I decided to clean the entire keyboard. To say it needed it would be an understatement. It is a good thing I took no photos, the incriminating evidence would be embarrassing!
With my plan to remove all the caps, I figured this would be the best time to pursue keycap dampeners. Post-research, I decided upon WASD's blue 40A-R dampeners (link). The blue rings are the thicker of the two, and I was hesitant to choose them but I had heard on Razer boards they worked best due to a possibly longer key steam. Whether this holds true, I do not know, but I do know I like them. They were the same $18 on Amazon, which screams overpriced in my book: they remind me of the rubber bands I had to use with my braces way back, and I cannot believe they cost nearly that much. But, I was too worried about the long-term survivability of questionable rubber, so I strayed from buying cheaper options. They have good reviews, a great number of them.
With that said, what are they like? Terrific. The keys sound noticeably softer, and there is no longer any bottoming-out sound, at least not of loud plastic. They do remove a fair portion of key travel, but with the MX Browns, the tactile bump remains, and there is some minimal travel beyond that bump. I haven't had any issues with typing, save for some mild adjustment. I have a tendency to mix shallow keystrokes with full bottom-out keystrokes, so my fingers have some miscues when the bottom-out and bounce-back occur faster than expected. Overall, it feels like a brand new board (and looks the part, it really needed that cleaning!), and the dampened sound and softer key strokes are greatly welcomed.
I felt it might be a good idea to at least provide some info about what I did here so that others who haven't already thought about this might have some insight.
I have a Razer Blackwidow Ultimate Stealth (first year model, introduced in 2011, purchased in 2012). This has the Cherry MX Brown switches, with blue backlighting.
I decided I needed to do some maintenance after discovering a few keys were getting a little sticky. Months ago, I had spilled a mixed drink (w/ diet coke) on part of the board. I disconnected, and put it upside down for a few days. After general wiping, it functioned perfectly, without any trace of stickiness or other issues.
With that in mind, I looked up how to proceed, and discovered DeOxit D5 seemed to be a suggested cleaner/lube. I didn't want to go the full alcohol route because I didn't really want to strip what lube was already in the switches, and I figured the cleaning action of the DeOxit would be enough to work out any crud gumming up the works. While doing this, it actually seemed like the keys may have worked out their issue (after spamming and just checking once caps were removed), so I wonder if the switches were fine in the first place. We'll see if they get worse in the future, as I only used the contact cleaner on a portion of the keys, so I will have a comparison to note any change.
Since I would be opening up at least a few keys, I decided to clean the entire keyboard. To say it needed it would be an understatement. It is a good thing I took no photos, the incriminating evidence would be embarrassing!
With my plan to remove all the caps, I figured this would be the best time to pursue keycap dampeners. Post-research, I decided upon WASD's blue 40A-R dampeners (link). The blue rings are the thicker of the two, and I was hesitant to choose them but I had heard on Razer boards they worked best due to a possibly longer key steam. Whether this holds true, I do not know, but I do know I like them. They were the same $18 on Amazon, which screams overpriced in my book: they remind me of the rubber bands I had to use with my braces way back, and I cannot believe they cost nearly that much. But, I was too worried about the long-term survivability of questionable rubber, so I strayed from buying cheaper options. They have good reviews, a great number of them.
With that said, what are they like? Terrific. The keys sound noticeably softer, and there is no longer any bottoming-out sound, at least not of loud plastic. They do remove a fair portion of key travel, but with the MX Browns, the tactile bump remains, and there is some minimal travel beyond that bump. I haven't had any issues with typing, save for some mild adjustment. I have a tendency to mix shallow keystrokes with full bottom-out keystrokes, so my fingers have some miscues when the bottom-out and bounce-back occur faster than expected. Overall, it feels like a brand new board (and looks the part, it really needed that cleaning!), and the dampened sound and softer key strokes are greatly welcomed.